[kj] NEW ALBUM - lengthy longnessness

[FLIGHT BRINGER]

I'm not accepting garbage like that Alex. I suggest you listen to it again 
when you are in a better frame of mind. The review below reflects you recent 
ratty attitude rather than a true reflection of the album.
  So chill out, cheer up and listen to the album again , and  hopefully you 
will write a review that reflects the album and not your state of mind


>From: Alex Smith <vassifer at earthlink.net>
>Reply-To: Alex Smith <vassifer at earthlink.net>,"A list about all things 
>Killing Joke (the band!)"<gathering at misera.net>
>To: "A list about all things Killing Joke (the band!)" 
><gathering at misera.net>, The Gathering <gathering at misera.net>
>Subject: Re: [kj] NEW ALBUM - lengthy longnessness
>Date: Tue, 4 Apr 2006 09:28:00 -0400 (GMT-04:00)
>
>
>  "and one of the things that's wrong with it is that the tracks are too 
>long"
>
>I've had the album on my iPod for the past several days, trying -- somewhat 
>unsuccessfully -- to warm to it. On my way home from work last night, I was 
>stopped by a friend coming out of a local coffee shop. I didn't have time 
>to take out my ipod and put it on pause (this was right in the middle of 
>"Implosion"). I stopped and chatted with my friend for two or three minutes 
>and then walked on. When I put my headphones back on, "Implosion" was still 
>trudging along -- almost as if I had paused it and then resumed. There was 
>no indication of progress. My problem with too many of the tracks here is 
>that they simply plod along endlessly, often without any semblance of 
>fruition. Middle-eights -- when they finally arrive -- are bittersweet, as 
>they signal that there's still another half song to go.
>
>With the lone exception of "Majestic," there is no real definition to the 
>bass Outside of this track, you'd never know the bass parts were provided 
>by a four-stringed instrument. Poor Benny's drums take a backseat 
>throughout the proceedings, with the possible exception of "Walking with 
>Gods" -- elsewhere it's just a dull, incidental rattle (contrast that with 
>Big Paul's tribal battery on FIRE DANCES and/or What's THIS for..!)
>
>The weakest link overall, though, is Jaz. His vocals are completely shot 
>and his lyrics this time around make "Loose Cannon" read like Homer's 
>"Iliad."
>
>Like the font that blights the cover, Jaz's contributions here have a 
>"that'll do" sort've feel. Speaking of the font, I'd love to have been a 
>fly on the wall in the Russian surrealist artist's studio when he saw what 
>Jaz had scribbled on his painting.
>
>Geordie brings his A-Game to the table (especially on "Universe B," -- a 
>fuckin' B-SIDE!). I will say that, though the album overall suffers from a 
>bit of a tune famine. Not a lot of memorable hooks here. While "hooks" 
>might be the staple of the pop corps, Killing Joke -- for all their scary 
>bluster -- have always found a way to find melody in the madness, and itt's 
>a bit harder to find this time.  There might indeed be tunes here, but 
>they're largely lost in blurry compresion to my ears. There isn't any space 
>for the individual players, and the sum suffers as a result (as far as I'm 
>concerned).
>
>It's not all complaints: I quite like "Tribal Antidote," "Majestic," 
>"Walking with Gods" and the groove of "LightBringer" (otherwise sullied by 
>Jaz's vocals and adamant disregard for singing with any semblance of 
>meter).
>
>If I sound like I'm being unduly harsh, it's because I *KNOW* this band is 
>capable of better, and we've all heard it.
>
>
>Alex in NYC
>

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